She Has Exams But She Also Has Sickle Cell Disease... Update: Deformed New-born

Well, this "dad" came down to my consulting room yesterday, complaining angrily that it appeared his daughter had been neglected.

Up until then I had been unaware of the case of the young lady with Bone-pain Crisis in Sicle Cell Disease - it wasn't quite half an hour that I had resumed duty and apparently the patient's intra-venous "line" had been unsuccessfully attempted earlier in the day, or so it seemed, and her parent had started to feel abandoned - which wasn't quite the case as she wasn't yet due for her next shot of i.v. injections, anyway.

Eventually I went up and was able to secure the i.v. line on her right forearm. I then resumed her continuous i.v. fluid infusion - good thing that she had all the while tolerated lots of fluid by mouth. Apparently she had also ran a fever and diagnosed with possible Malaria. She appeared a little subdued in mannerisms as her dad informed me of her forth-coming school exams in three days.

Later, I learnt of the little drama that had ensued earlier, when she had protested bitterly the need for i.v. needles in the first instance, after several failed attempts by the nursing staff to secure one.

The lady with deformed new-born baby delivered a week ago through Caesarean Section: I'm not sure whether or not she has been made aware of her baby's condition - Dr. Nsisi preferred a tactically delayed approach in breaking the news with the baby's grandmother fully recruited for the job of tending to the baby - quite honestly, if really the mother still has not yet known, I'm not sure how they've managed it!

I'm in disagreement with my colleague's thinking also, as to whether it's the right standard of practice to keep the news this long away from the mother.

The dad was of course in the picture right from before our coming out of theatre.

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